A Dead Heart's Desire
by Pretty Duckie in Pink
Summary: Raven has been banished to Heat and isn't exactly in love with the idea... but could a new WWE diva catch his attention? RavenDaffney
1. Banished To Hell

*~*~*Hey everyone! Just thought I'd give a different sort of story a try... it's Raven/Daffney stuff. Yay! lol Any ways, I'm not entirely sure where I'm gonna go with it, but hopefully it turns out at least 'okay'. I hope you enjoy it!*~*~*  
  
**********  
  
Sunday Night Heat. Fucking Sunday Night Heat is where they'd banished him to. Well, to be fair, he banished himself to it, but the stupidity of the match stipulation couldn't be described in words. The loser would be put exclusively on Heat? Why? It's not like anybody ever watched that show. It was there so WWE could have a show for its low carders to see how they would fare in the ring with some of the midcarders before bringing them up to Raw. So why in the hell was he being sent there?  
  
Raven gave a disgusted sigh, obviously pissed off about the entire thing. It wasn't his problem that, for once, he had an off night and lost to D'Lo Brown, the no-talent ex-accountant who was the type of wrestler you saw on television and automatically thought, "Now would be a great time to go take a piss." He had no personality, or at least not one that any of the WWE fans could find. His wrestling ability was absolutely nothing special. D'Lo was average, probably worse than average, but Raven was in no mood to really pick out every single one of the wrestler's flaws right then. All he wanted to do was sit by himself, as usual, and mope.  
  
"Hey buddy," the multi-color haired kid known as Jeff Hardy greeted Raven as the defeated wrestler trudged toward the locker room he had been sharing with a few of the other guys, though not by choice. Raven most certainly didn't like Jeff, but because on ONE occasion Raven had helped the guy with his body paint just to get him to shut the hell up, the so-called daredevil of WWE had taken it to mean they were friends.  
  
They weren't.  
  
Raven didn't even raise his head to look at Jeff as he continued with his laborious walk. He wanted nothing to do with anybody right now, especially not this idiot. Besides, he was probably doped up on something to where he really wasn't even sure who Raven was. Everyone was Jeff's "buddy" when he had snorted one too many lines of crack.  
  
"Dude, are you all right?" Jeff asked, trying to get Raven to say something. He now began following the angry wrestler, going so far as to put his arm around Raven's shoulders.  
  
"If you don't remove your arm from my shoulders, I will break it in to two pieces, Hardy" Raven told him, a deadly calm in his voice. It was beyond him if Jeff really even realized what he had said, but he did retract his arm, and that was enough for Raven. "It's none of your business how I am. Go on your own way before I decide that I despise your company enough to do something about it."  
  
"Man, ya gotta chill out," Jeff said. "You're just way too uptight about all this. Heat ain't so bad, dude..."  
  
That was it. Raven couldn't take any more of Jeff's useless talking. He had told him once that he needed to go on his own way and being told once was more than what most people got from him. Raven grabbed the neck of Jeff's shirt and slammed his back against the wall, making sure to get right in the younger Hardy brother's face.  
  
"I don't know if you're too high to understand me, Hardy, but I told you to leave. I didn't ask you to, I didn't suggest it... I told you to. So go!" Raven shouted the last bit, trying for the last time to get the point across to Jeff. He hated Jeff's general personality, a mixture between an ADHD child and someone who had been drinking too much caffeine, but he hated him even more when he had gotten himself to the point where he was just stoned enough to not listen to anything you said.  
  
"Shit, dude... fine, I'm goin'," Jeff replied with a bit of an attitude. Normally, something like that would have made Raven even more mad, but he was happy with the fact that Jeff would now be leaving, so he left it at that. He released the grip he had on Jeff's collar and walked off, resuming the slow walk he had before he was interrupted.  
  
All he wanted to do was take his mind off of all of this for awhile. Raven didn't want to have to think about the hell he had been sentenced to until the next time he absolutely had to. There were only so many things he could do to occupy his time until tomorrow night's house show, though, where he would no doubt have a few more wrestlers try to offer some sort of bizarre sympathy to him because of all of this. It's not that they really cared, though. Most of them were probably happy to see a performer of Raven's caliber sent to a lesser show so he couldn't continue to show them up with his promos and wrestling talent.  
  
So... now what? What was he to do with his time? He had no one to talk to, but then again he never did. There was no one in WWE that he could have a conversation with that dealt with anything beyond wrestling. Not that he particularly enjoyed talking to other people, but occasionally it would be amusing to see one of the simpletons he worked with try to actually use their brain to carry on a mature conversation. Raven didn't expect that to happen any time soon, though.  
  
He could always go find Jeff Hardy, who had probably already forgotten that Raven had ordered him to leave him alone only seconds earlier, and buy some of his drugs, whatever he happened to have with him. Not that he was particularly fond of them, having just gotten off of an addiction to pain killers within the past few years, but it would give him something to do so that he wouldn't have to think of the hell that was Heat. But no, it was best not to stray down that path at this time. Maybe one day when he really had something extremely bad happen to him, but until then Raven didn't feel the need to get involved with that.  
  
What was he left with then? The thought had crossed his mind to find one of the ring rats that were scarily abundant at the local bars after wrestling shows, but then he remembered what had happened the last time he did that. To put things simply, you couldn't just sit at a bar and not have a drink... or two, or three, or... more than that, and by the time you've had a few beers, your judgment isn't really what it should be, which can lead to very, very bad decisions. Raven left it to that in his mind, not really in the mood to think about the horrendous looking woman he had woken up next to the next morning. No, he definitely wouldn't be doing that.  
  
"To hell with this," Raven muttered to himself. He didn't need anyone right now, he just needed to be by himself, so he would be. There was nothing wrong with a 38-year-old man being entirely by himself once in awhile, at least not to him. With that assurance in mind, Raven changed his direction from his locker room to the parking garage where his rental car awaited him. He had placed his gym bag there earlier, any ways, so he had no need to go back to that room where he would be willing to bet there might be two or three wrestlers he might run in to who would try to talk to him about being placed on Heat.  
  
No, he didn't need that right now. 


	2. All By Herself

*~*~*Author's Note: Here's something from Daffney's perspective... and that's about all I have to say! :-P*~*~*  
  
**********  
  
"Wow..." was all Daffney Unger could bring herself to say as she looked up at the large arena that stood before her. It was 11:30 AM on a Tuesday and she was there early for that night's house show for WWE. It was her first show where she would actually be wrestling, as compared to two other house shows she had worked for the major wrestling company where she had just been a valet for Devon Storm, known to most fans as Crowbar from WCW.  
  
This time, though, Daffney was here on her own. She had no real friends on the Raw side of WWE's roster, with the possible exception of Booker T. They hadn't been great friends in WCW, but they were at least hospitable to each other. Other than him, though, she couldn't think of anyone she knew or liked on the Raw roster. This was shaping up to be a bad night.  
  
Finally, with her gym bag slung over her right shoulder, Daffney started walking towards the building. Once she reached the doors, she gently pushed one of them open and looked down the hallway before completely walking in and allowing the door to shut behind her. What she found upon entering the hallway was something she was used to from WCW: complete chaos.  
  
Everywhere, there were crew members running around, moving large boxes, shouting to each other about what went to each wrestler's locker room, and so on. It was only 11:30 AM, it was only a house show, but these people were acting as if it was Monday Night Raw all over again. They wanted everything to look as professional as possible, even when the show wasn't being nationally broadcast. It was because of that desire to be perfect for every show that they were all scurrying about, keeping busy the entire time.  
  
The raven-haired wrestler just stood back and watched them in awe. Yes, she was used to all of this, but it still seemed so new to her. It had been awhile since she had been to one of these house shows and even then she had Devon with her, so she never really noticed what everyone else was doing. Now that she was all alone, though, everything seemed so strange.  
  
Daffney sighed as she thought of him. He was a great guy, that was certain, and had always been there for her when she needed him. Through all of her problems with David Flair, Devon had been the one to help her out and was her shoulder to cry on. Then, when she was gone for awhile after David left her for Stacy Keibler, he always kept track of her, calling her at home every now and then to make sure she was doing all right and that she would be coming back. Daffney had always planned on coming back because she loved working for WCW, even if it was doing terribly in ratings. So, of course, she would be coming back. However, she received a very big shock upon her return.  
  
When she finally decided it was the right time for her to get back to work, Daffney expected that she would come back to find Devon, known then as Crowbar, ready and willing to team up again and be the psychos that the fans knew them as. It wasn't to be that way, though. For about a month or so before her return, Daffney hadn't been getting the calls from him checking up on her. She just assumed that he had gotten busy all of the sudden and couldn't find the time, which was perfectly fine with her. He had a job to do. If only Daffney would have watched Nitro or Thunder a few times, she would have realized what happened. She hadn't, though, because she couldn't stand to watch everyone else do what she loved while she took some time off to deal with the pain David had caused her.  
  
Daffney entered the arena that WCW Nitro was showing in that night. She didn't remember the name of the building, but that hardly mattered. What she found upon entering Crowbar's locker room was something that made her retch. Two Nitro Girls, whose names escaped Daffney at all times because they all looked alike to her, were all over him. Touching him, kissing him... and while Daffney had never been romantically involved with Devon, it hurt. This wasn't something the man she knew would do and she had no idea what had come over him. With those thoughts in mind, she had released one of her famous, ear-piercing shrieks and ran away from that room. She never wanted to see that again.  
  
"'Scuse me, miss, but ya need to move outta the way," a short, pudgy man told her as he lightly pushed her away from the door she had been standing in front of. Caught up in her own thoughts, Daffney hadn't realized that she had still been standing in front of the door. She quickly began walking away from it and through the mess of crew and wrestlers in front of her.  
  
Back to her thoughts, though, she started thinking about everything that had happened on television after she came back to WCW. Of course, to the fans, it appeared that not much had changed between Daffney and Devon. Despite the fact that he was in a bit of a "hippie" phase, she still stuck right by him and the fans welcomed her back with open arms, or at least the ones who were still sticking with WCW did. To them, everything between the two looked fine. Even when she went to NWA-TNA with him a few times after WCW was bought out, everyone thought everything was okay. It was never the same.  
  
Once again lost in her thoughts, Daffney managed to plow right in to someone walking in the opposite direction of herself. She stumbled back a few steps, but the man she ran in to didn't. He just stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her. It was obvious that he hadn't been in a good mood before Daffney's little accident, but it was all worse now.  
  
"The hell do you think you're doing?" He asked, his voice calm in a scary way. The kind of calm that you got right before someone started screaming at you.  
  
"Um..." was all Daffney could manage to mumble. She focused her attention on the ground, not really wanting to be yelled at this early on. After a moment passed, she looked back up at him, this time giving him a good look over, hoping to recognize him from somewhere. She did.  
  
He wasn't someone she had worked with before, at least not that she could recall, but she definitely knew him. His hair was a mixture of brown and blonde braids, his cheeks were covered in symbols painted on them in white. A worn-out leather jacket was all that adorned his upper body while a kilt and a pair of black boots, which had seen much better days, did the same for his lower body. His skin was tanned, but not exceptionally dark, and his physique was something to admire. Tattoos covered his mid-section, but Daffney couldn't identify what they were.  
  
Raven. That was his name.  
  
"What are you staring at?" Raven asked her, his voice getting a little bit angrier now than it was before. Daffney snapped out of a daze for about the tenth time within the last five minutes and still couldn't manage to say anything other than to utter a few words about being sorry, or something to that affect.  
  
"Hey!" A voice cut through Daffney's uncomfortable mumbling. Both of them turned their heads to see where the voice was coming from and were greeted by a bright smile and a small wave.  
  
"You're Daffney, right?" The small brunette woman asked as she walked up to Daffney.  
  
"Yeah," Daffney replied, giving her first real response to any question in awhile. "And you're Ivory?"  
  
"You betcha!" Ivory replied cheerfully. "I knew you were supposed to be here early, but I didn't think you'd show up this early! That's good, though. It shows you're serious about working here."  
  
"I definitely am," Daffney assured the perky woman, who now turned to Raven.  
  
"Don't you have a match to be getting ready for? It's never too early to be thinking about strategy!" Ivory informed him, to which he only rolled his eyes and walked past the two women. He didn't have time for this nonsense. "So, are you ready for tonight?" Ivory asked, returning her attention to Daffney. "The scouts have been talkin' about you a good bit! They've really been impressed..."  
  
Daffney blushed a bit at the notion that anyone could be impressed with her work. While she loved wrestling and had gotten considerably better at it over her time away from shows that were actually on television, she still didn't think she was anywhere near the level of people like Ivory, Molly Holly, or Jacqueline. "I guess I'm ready. Ready as I'll ever be!"  
  
"Good, good! Now, lets get you over to those wardrobe people and see what they think they can do with ya. Don't worry, I'll stick around to make sure they don't turn ya in to anything too horrible," Ivory said with a chuckle, then started to lead the normally-Gothic wrestler towards the WWE stylists. 


	3. Right?

Author's Note: Okay... what to say... oh! lol I double-checked on my facts for the story and found that Raven lost to Tommy Dreamer, no D'Lo Brown, in the Loser Leaves Raw match. :-( Sorry for the mess up, but I was so sure it was D'Lo for some reason... ~*shrugs*~ Guess not!  
  
Any ways, here goes with the third chapter. Hope ya like it!  
  
*****  
  
"1... 2... 3!" The referee counted aloud, then signaled for the bell to ring. The match was over just about three minutes after it had started. A total squash, but then again, it was the first match of a house show. What were they expecting?  
  
Raven stood up and looked down at the local wrestler, a young guy more than likely in his very early twenties. When he had walked to the top of the ramp, hearing the generic music that WWE had set aside for all jobbers, there was a sense of pride about him... like he was living out a dream, even if it was just for one night. For all Raven knew, this twenty-something man had been building up his whole life, desiring only to reach this one house show.  
  
It made him smile. A sick smile... possibly the only kind that Raven knew how to give. He directed his smirk at the youth who was lying on the mat, though the boy would never see it. Chaos, the young man's ring name, was out cold after an Evenflow DDT, though that wasn't the sole factor in his current condition. Repeated chair shots to the head, a DDT on the cement that surrounded the ring, which was usually covered by black floor mats, and a shot from a kendo stick were just a few of the things that led up to his current state. Oh well... it was his problem, now.  
  
The hardcore wrestler removed himself from the ring, sliding out under the bottom rope. The wrestling fans booed him, as they always did, but this time there was something different about it. It wasn't as loud, it seemed... as a matter of fact, it seemed to just be a few people by the entrance way that were actually booing him. Now that Raven actually looked, many of the seats that were in his line of view were empty. This couldn't be right... right? No, people were always glued to their seats whenever the hardcore wrestler was involved. Something must have been wrong... maybe they had locked up the doors for some reason. Maybe there was something going on in the hallways... maybe Jeff Hardy was selling the rest of his drug supply out of the back of a pick-up truck in the parking lot.  
  
No... this was just the harsh reality of being the first match on a house show and facing a wrestler nobody knew. It would be the same with Heat, where Raven was sure he would end up facing more nameless jobbers that WWE was giving trial runs to in the hopes that someone would stand out. The thought of his talents being wasted on the sub-par show nearly made the antisocial wrestler mad enough to start yelling and punching at the first person he saw when he got backstage, whoever the unfortunate soul would end up being.  
  
Crew members. Those were the only sort of people Raven saw upon walking to the other side of the entrance curtain. People milling about, trying to find the wrestlers for the next match. No one was there to congratulate him on annihilating yet another punk kid. Not that they ever did, but still... the selfish bastards. Always tending to everyone else's needs except his. What about him? What about Raven?  
  
With a sigh, the tired wrestler headed towards his locker room. These people could go to hell for all he cared, all he wanted was to be alone. Come to think of it, that was all he ever wanted. Just to be left alone to himself... so why had it slightly upset him that no one was ever there to congratulate him for anything he ever did? The only person who had ever done that was Stevie Richards and Raven had long since pushed the dark-haired wrestler away from him. He just couldn't handle being praised for some reason, yet he desired it at the same time.  
  
Raven shook his head as if trying to clear it of cobwebs. Even with his extremely advanced education, he had just confused himself a bit. Damned people, making him think like this. They weren't worth this much of his time. He turned the corner that would put him in the hallway of his locker room, then ran in to someone for the second time that night...  
  
"Oh for fuck's sake!" the angry wrestler shouted, his emotions boiling over now, for no real reason. "Is it completely impossible to believe that any of you will ever be able to watch where you're going?!"  
  
"I-I... um... I'm sorry?" a female voice barely managed to squeak out in apology. When Raven actually looked to see who it was, he realized that it was the exact same girl that had run in to him earlier. Was she stalking him or something?  
  
Now that he really looked, though, she didn't look quite the same as she had earlier. The first time around, her long black hair had been left to fall, messily, to the middle of her back. A large sweat shirt covered in different shades of blue with the band name "Iron Maiden" written across the chest in grey letters. A pair of blue jeans that were just a bit loose on her, along with tennis shoes, covered her lower half, completing her outfit.   
  
Now, her hair had been perfectly combed and pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes had been outlined in black and it looked like her skin, which had appeared to be as close to white as you could get just a bit earlier, had a tinge of color to it. A red tank top that tied up the front, a pair of black leather pants, and black wrestling boots with heels on them now made up her outfit.  
  
Raven liked the first version better.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" he asked. Though more than a bit irritated, Raven was interested in finding out her name. Lord only knew that he would probably be working with her for the rest of his WWE career, so he might as well figure out who she was so he could add her name to his list of people to avoid.  
  
"D-Daffney..." the raven-haired female stuttered, making Raven wonder if she was even able to get out a single phrase without reducing herself to a nervous mess.  
  
But wait... Daffney? That named sounded familiar. Not that he would have met or anything like that, but like he had heard of her somewhere before. It wasn't the indies and he was one hundred percent positive that she had never been in ECW, so that meant...  
  
"Daffney? WCW Daffney? Daffney that was completely swept away by Ric Flair's fuck-up of a son, David?" Raven asked, now remembering exactly who she was. After he had left WCW, he still watched every once in awhile, just to see how things were going. Now that she had mentioned her name, Raven could sort of identify her.  
  
"Um, yeah... that's me," Daffney replied, nodding her head. Her cheeks were now turning a light shade of pink, probably out of embarrassment for falling in love with David Flair, Raven thought. "I... um... I've got a match, so I better be going. Sorry to run in to you again..."  
  
With that, Daffney quickly walked around Raven and went as fast as she could towards the entrance way. She definitely wasn't interested in angering the wrestler who had become well-known for his horrible temper. Raven turned to watch her as she walked away, noting how fast she went. Not that it bothered him... or maybe it did?  
  
Mentally cursing himself out for the hundredth time that night, Raven resumed his plodding walk. Why were all of these stupid questions about whether people liked him or not plaguing his mind? Of course he didn't care! He was Raven. He had been on his own all of his life and that was just how it was.  
  
Right?  
  
**********  
  
Okay, I know that chapter wasn't GREAT, but I just wanted to get something else out there. :-) Hope you guys at least semi-enjoyed it! Bye! 


	4. Tell Me About It

"Hey, girl! Where have ya been?" Ivory asked as Daffney walked up to her from the general direction of the men's locker room area. "Been checkin' out the hotties?"  
  
Daffney shook her head and chuckled slightly, "no... haven't seen any so far..."  
  
"Aw, come on! Ya gotta loosen up a bit, hun! You're acting way too shy to be a diva!" the always-bubbly brunette informed Daffney, throwing an arm around the darker-haired woman's shoulders. "I'll have to start introducing you to some of the guys and girls after your match is over. Most of 'em are pretty nice... and I stress the word 'most'."  
  
"Who's not nice?" Daffney inquired, though she was pretty sure she already knew at least one person who would be on that list.  
  
"Hmmm... Lita's not as nice as she seems on television... Hunter's an ass, but that shouldn't surprise you..." Ivory said, just trying to name people off the top of her head that she knew Daffney had probably seen on television. Suddenly, a name popped into her head, "Oh! If you can, avoid...  
  
"Hey, Ivory!" a rough, yet happy voice shouted suddenly. The short brunette cringed slightly as the familiar sound reached her ears. It was him. The one person she had tried to avoid for her WWF career after the Right to Censor disbanded not so very long ago. Stevie Richards.  
  
"Whatcha been up to?" Stevie asked, slinging an arm around Ivory's shoulder in much the same way the female wrestler had her arm slung around Daffney's shoulder, though she moved her arm away from the raven-haired diva so she could slightly inch away from Stevie.  
  
"Um... nothing," Ivory answered, for once being a bit quiet. "I've just been working."  
  
"Oh... well that's cool!" Stevie replied with a smile. "I haven't had much time to talk to you since the RTC broke up and... well, I always really enjoyed your company."  
  
"Yeah, that's nice, Stevie. Maybe we can get together some time... later. Much, much later," Ivory informed him, still trying to get as far away from the psychotic wrestler as possible.  
  
"Sounds good to me," he agreed giddily. He then turned his attention to Daffney, who now found herself standing between Stevie and Ivory after Ivory had made her way further and further away from Stevie. A look of slight confusion replaced his goofy grin. "What's your name?"  
  
"I'm Daffney," she answered with a small smile.  
  
"Oh! I think I've heard of you..." Stevie said, then paused to think for a moment. "You're that crazy wrestler from WCW, right?"  
  
"Yep, that was me," she confirmed, much to the male wrestler's delight.  
  
"You were awesome!" Stevie shouted with joy. "You're so much cooler than those other girls. I liked your shirts with the writing on them, too... those were really cool."  
  
Daffney blushed a bit, surprised that anyone in the WWE locker room was a fan of hers. Then again, from what she had heard of him, Stevie Richards also had a history as a bit of a 'psycho' wrestler. She had seen a few tapes with him on them, but had never seen enough to make a good judgment of his abilities, though she had heard on more than once occasion that he was killer on the microphone.  
  
"Maybe we could team up some time!" Stevie suggested suddenly, a notable enthusiasm in his voice. "I think it'd work out pretty well... plus, I could help ya with your hardcore wrestling and everything. It could be a lot of fun!"  
  
"Sure!" Daffney replied, tossing that idea around in her head. It certainly couldn't hurt to have a partner once in awhile, and Stevie didn't seem as bad as Ivory had almost made him out to be.  
  
"Well, Stevie, it's been great talking to ya, but Daff and I really need to be going," Ivory interjected, trying to break up their little conversation so that she could get away from her former partner.  
  
"Yeah, okay! I'll see you guys later!" Stevie said, nodding his head, before walking off. He waved exuberantly as he walked off, causing Daffney to laugh a bit as Ivory let out a sigh of relief.  
  
"He's a bit energetic," Daffney commented.  
  
"Psh," Ivory sighed. "Ya don't know the half of it, Daff. The man is a complete loon, like I was trying to tell ya a moment ago. A good wrestler, yes, but mentally stable... definitely not."  
  
"Seems like a nice guy to me," the taller wrestler added on, to which Ivory just waved a hand as if to dismiss the idea. Daffney couldn't quite figure out what was going on between these two and she had no idea what the RTC thing was that Stevie had referred to. She would have to ask Ivory about it later.  
  
Then, a thought came to her mind about someone she had meant to ask Ivory about earlier, "what about Raven?"  
  
Ivory looked at Daffney with confusion slightly drawn on her face, "what about him? He's self-absorbed, aloof, overly-intelligent, depressed, hot-tempered... do ya need anymore descriptive words or do ya get the picture now?"  
  
"I think I get it," Daffney answered with a nod. "So there's nothing good about him?"  
  
The brunette thought for a moment, then lightly shook her head from side to side as if she was thinking about something, "well, he's a pretty good wrestler... very good on the microphone... he's just keeps to himself too much for my liking. Oh, and whatever ya do, DON'T mention him around Stevie. That usually doesn't lead to good things."  
  
"Why not?" Daffney asked. She had no idea that the two wrestlers had even met, let alone had a history together.  
  
"I'm not one to go in to details," Ivory replied with a shrug, "all I can really say for certain is that they used to be really good friends and I guess they didn't part on good terms. Actually, it seems they parted on absolutely awful terms if ya hear Stevie talk about it."  
  
"Hm... well, I'm sure there must be something good about him," Daffney commented.  
  
"Well as soon as you figure out what that is, tell me about it," Ivory said with a laugh. "Now come on, you've got a match to wrestle!"  
  
********************  
  
Author's Note: Hope that was good enough for you guys. I know it could've been better, but I'm just taking this one step at a time. :-) Hope ya enjoyed it! 


	5. Reflecting on the Usually Fairer Sex

She was stunning. Not stunning in the same way as someone like Trish Stratus, Stacy Keibler, or any of the other dime-a-dozen women that WWE employed. She was quick, but smart about her movements. A few of her mistakes were obvious and easily taken advantage of by the ring veteran she was facing, but overall there wasn't as much bad to be said about the raven-haired wrestler as most would have thought.  
  
Now... just what in the hell was he doing admiring someone else's wrestling ability? Let alone a woman... dear God, he was obviously losing his mind bit by bit.  
  
Of course, Raven could always attribute the fact that he was watching the match to the fact that his past... "interest", Molly Holly, was the veteran that he referred to in his thoughts. Yes, the lovely Molly who, for some reason, had caught his interest not so very long ago. She was the epitome of the girl-next-door. Cute, blonde, wholesome, athletic... she was his opposite in every way, which could have been the reason he took to her so quickly. Not that he ever told anyone, though there had been the occasional whisper that Raven had his eye on the pure diva. Still, nothing came of it and those whispers were dismissed as quickly as the notion that Naked Mideon should grace the cover of the next WWE Diva's magazine.  
  
But, of course, Raven and Molly were not meant to be. No... Molly and Spike. That was the couple everyone loved to see. They were adorable, loving, happy... Raven hated it. He loathed Spike Dudley for the pain he inadvertently caused Raven. Raven despised the smaller wrestler because he had the one thing Raven actually wanted: Molly. He never put his hands on Spike to hurt him, though, while the blonde-haired wrestler was dating the object of Raven's desire. No, because that would have caused her pain. A pain that Raven felt it was unnecessary for her to suffer if he could avoid causing it. Of course, the lovely Molly would feel this pain many times over as Spike seemed to become the target for all sorts of abuse from his fellow wrestlers, particularly his own brothers, Buh-Buh and D-Von. Still, the couple remained strong for awhile... until Hurricane Helms stole Molly away from him in what seemed to be the blink of an eye. That was when Raven stopped caring.  
  
He was getting off of his topic now, though. Why was he really watching this match? It wasn't because of Molly, no matter how much he wished he could write it off as just that. No, it was because of this new girl. This new girl who had caught his attention. How had she done it? All they had ever done was run in to each other. Twice. Actually, she had run in to him, but that wasn't the point.  
  
Daffney. That was her name. The previous lover of David Flair, the loathsome brat of Ric Flair, the legendary wrestler. It was plain to anyone who had ever spoke with David, which Raven had on two or three occasions, that the oldest Flair son had no idea what he was getting himself in to. David thought everything was going to come easy to him just because he was Ric's son... and the second a semi-pretty girl showed him any attention, he jumped at her.  
  
That "semi-pretty girl" was, in fact, Daffney. Despite the fact that she had caught Raven's eyes, he had to admit that there was something quite plain about her. Her style was very casual, she hardly ever did anything nice with her hair, her make-up was minimal, to say the least. Daffney just didn't stand out from the crowd as one of the prettiest girls you were ever going to see... but she really didn't seem to care.  
  
There was always the possibility that she did care, though. She could just be trying to play it off so that her care-free look caught people's attention. That was what the woman known to the fans as Lita did, when anyone who had spent any time with her knew that she spent just as much time as Stacy Keibler trying to figure out what to wear and things of that nature. Raven shuddered at the thought of the so-called "Queen of Extreme" for more than one reason. One being that the real Queen of Extreme was none other than Francine, not this so-called wrestler who couldn't hit her own signature move correctly.  
  
The other reason was because, at one point, the two had been dating. Actually, dating probably wasn't even the right word for what they were when they were together. They were... Raven couldn't even think of a word for what they had been, but he knew that it had lasted about six hellish months. Thank God he came to his senses when he did. Raven wasn't best known for his selectiveness when it came to what girls he would have sex with, but even he was ashamed that he had stooped that low. The sad thing, though, was that lately she had been following him around, despite the fact that Matt Hardy was her current fuck buddy. Raven almost felt sorry for the older Hardy brother, but he was Raven... he didn't feel sorry for anyone but himself.  
  
Raven slouched down in his steel chair, becoming a little less interested in this match than he had been earlier. It was obvious that it was almost over, considering that Molly Holly had just officially knocked Daffney off her feet and was now heading for the top rope, as her opponent was trying to get to her feet, for her finisher, the Molly-Go-Round.  
  
"What the fu-...?" Raven suddenly heard himself saying as he saw a dark-haired wrestler start running down the ramp towards the ring, earning boos from the crowd. The new wrestler quickly grabbed Molly's legs and pulled them out from under her, sending her crashing down to the mat, while the referee was tending to the very dazed and confused Daffney.  
  
When Daffney was finally able to stand on her own, she soon found herself looking down at her opponent, who had been kicking her butt from ring post to post during this match, as she appeared to be completely out of it from her fall from the top turnbuckle. The person who had helped her had retreated to the back just seconds before Daffney regained her composure, so for all the new diva knew, Molly had just accidentally fallen while preparing for her move. Wasting no more time than she already had, Daffney used all that was left of her strength to pick Molly up and place her, sitting, on the top rope, then climb up the turnbuckles herself to perform her signature move, the FrankenScreamer. It was only three seconds later that Daffney found herself on the right side of a pin attempt and heard her name being announced by Lillian Garcia as the winner of the match.  
  
Raven was still in shock... what in the hell did Stevie Richards think he was doing?  
  
********************  
  
Author's Note: Okay, I know all the chapters so far have just been setting stuff up, but I want to try to get as much of the explanation stuff as I can out of the way. :-) Hope ya enjoyed this and I will try to get another update out... soon. I should have an update to my MS out tonight, if I'm lucky, so that will clear me to work on this one. Thanks! 


	6. What'd I Do?

"Did ya see that, Ivory?! Did ya?! I beat her!" Daffney Unger exclaimed with enthusiasm that seemed to be oozing from every inch of her skin. Ever since she had showed up at the arena that morning, the raven-haired woman hadn't shown many signs of life, but now she was absolutely beaming. But was she even aware that Stevie Richards had helped her out?  
  
"Uh... yeah, Daff, that was great!" Ivory replied, reluctant to go along with Daffney at first, but then deciding it was best not to cause any trouble right now. "You really proved yourself out there tonight, kiddo! Great job!"  
  
Daffney giggled happily and jumped up and down as if she could barely contain her excitement. For a moment, she was the old Daffney... the one who screamed and laughed as loud as she could whenever she wanted to because she didn't care what anyone else thought. She had beaten Molly Holly, arguably the best female wrestler in WWE, and seemed to be on top of the world. If she knew what had happened to cause her to win that match, though, Ivory doubted she would be this overjoyed.  
  
"So, who's tomorrow?" Daffney asked, breaking Ivory out of her daze.  
  
Before the older brunette could answer, there was a chuckle that seemed to come from behind her. She and Daffney had been standing in the middle of a fairly empty hallway, with only the occasional technician or crew member walking through it. Now, though, there was definitely someone there who had the intent of interrupting their conversation.  
  
"You've got me tomorrow..." the voice informed Daffney. "Not that you'll last long."  
  
Without turning around, Ivory now knew who that voice belonged to. It was low and rough, with a hint of masculinity that couldn't be ignored. It was the redhead that Ivory loved to hate... Lita.  
  
"I'd say she'll do just as well against you as she wants to, Lita," Ivory responded, turning around to face the younger woman.  
  
Lita laughed again, "right, right... after she needed help to beat Molly, she's no match for me."  
  
"If Molly wasn't better than you by miles, I would say Daff would need to give you some sort of credit for your abilities," Ivory replied, "however, you don't even hold a candle to Nidia, Lita."  
  
"That may be what you think, Ivory," Lita chuckled, "but the last time I checked, it doesn't matter what you think, especially since you haven't been on television in about... oh... six months. The fans probably don't even remember your name."  
  
The last comment got Ivory steamed, to say the least. She knew that WWE had kept her off of television for awhile, but it wasn't like she was just sitting around. Ivory had been a trainer on Tough Enough and had also been down to OVW, working with the new girls there. However, the last thing she wanted to hear was Lita, a woman Ivory considered to be miles behind her in terms of all skills needed to be a wrestler, trying to put her down.  
  
"Maybe I haven't been on television, but at least they trust me teachings the new recruits," Ivory said. "Which reminds me, why do you think they haven't called on YOU to teach some of these girls, Lita? I mean, practically everyone else has gotten to go down to OVW and show them a different style. Last time I checked, they asked Molly to show them the cruiserweight moves that you seem to think you 'specialize' in. Why didn't they ask you?"  
  
The redhead rolled her eyes and gave another short, irritating chuckle, "I've been way too busy to bother with OVW. I've got meet-and-greets with Matt and Jeff, photo shoots for magazines, interviews... it's just too much for me to take time off to go down there."  
  
"I'm sure... that and the fact you almost broke Molly's neck the last time you tried that wonderful 'Litacanrana' of yours," Ivory said, the last part said under her breath.  
  
"Whatever, Ivory, just get over your jealousy, God... you and those other bitchy divas who think they're hot stuff. Obviously, I'm the person the fans want to see, so no matter what you think, that doesn't change anything," Lita informed her, then returned her attention to Daffney. "But I didn't come here to argue with you, Ivory, I just came here to warn your friend... Daffney."  
  
Daffney looked a bit nervous now that the attention was on her. She had been caught off-guard by the mini-war of words between Ivory and Lita, but now all she wanted to do was get away from the redhead that seemed to want to bring trouble here. Chewing a bit at her bottom lip, she spoke up, "um... yeah?"  
  
Lita rolled her eyes again, "sad excuse for a diva... but, what I wanted to say was that tomorrow, you might want to leave your little friend, Stevie Richards, in the back. Not that he's man enough to cause any sort of distraction for me, but I'd hate to see you get disqualified when he tried to interfere. I want the satisfaction of beating you in front of all of those wonderful fans and showing that you're just another nobody..."  
  
With those words, Lita walked away, thinking she had caused Daffney to be a bit frightened of her. Any fear the raven-haired diva might have felt, though, was dismissed as soon as Stevie Richards interfering in the match was mentioned. She had no idea what Lita was talking about.  
  
"What'd she mean by Stevie interfering in the match?" Daffney asked Ivory, looking completely discombobulated.  
  
"I, uh... I have no idea!" Ivory answered. "Maybe she just saw you and Stevie talking earlier and thought you were planning something. It's usually best not to worry about anything Lita says, she probably just made it up as she was standing there."  
  
"Um... all right," Daffney mumbled, still confused but fairly sure there was more to this than what Ivory had said. Even if Lita was a bit off, like she was being led to believe, she was sure that saying something about Stevie interfering didn't just come to her at random. Daffney had never even met the man before tonight, so even if the other woman had seen her talking to him, why would she really suspect anything?  
  
"You have no idea, Ivory? I find that hard to believe if you actually watched the match," another random voice said from behind the two. Ivory sighed loudly in frustration, becoming very annoyed with the people who were deciding to randomly interfere in this conversation.  
  
The two women turned around to find themselves staring at the man that Ivory had already declared was a completely lost cause: Raven. There he stood, looking just as unhappy as he always did, with a look of disappointment in his eyes.  
  
"You know, I had almost expected more from a new recruit," Raven began, "since you have all been spoken so highly of. The new women Vince has decided we need here on the Raw brand shows were supposed to be hard-working, talented girls who could hold their own in the ring with anyone."  
  
"She can!" Ivory said in defense of her friend, who looked even more worried than she had when Lita decided to show up in their conversation. Raven had completely thrown her for a loop when he chose to show up.  
  
The male wrestler gave Ivory a sarcastic half-smile, "that's wonderful, Ivory, but I think Daffney can speak for herself, right?"  
  
"Y-yeah... I suppose," the younger woman replied, her gaze turning to the ground. Ivory looked annoyed at, basically, being removed from the conversation, but what was she going to do? To continue talking would be pointless since she knew that Raven would just ignore anything she said.  
  
"So... you and Stevie Richards..." Raven said, mostly to himself, but he still got a reply from Daffney whether he wanted it or not.  
  
"What about him? I've only talked to him once..." Daffney said, still completely in the dark about why everyone kept talking about Stevie like they had been joined at the hip.  
  
"It looks like he's interested in more than just talking with you," Raven informed her. "I mean, it's not very often that someone who just wants to 'talk to you' runs down to help you in a match that you're obviously going to lose."  
  
"Huh?" was Daffney's immediate reply, but even as she gave that small sound the realization of what must have happened dawned on her.  
  
"Oh, so you didn't ask him to push Molly off of the top rope?" Raven asked her, even though it was obvious by her reaction that she hadn't. That, or maybe she was just an idiot, but Raven hoped for the former rather than the latter.  
  
"No! I don't need anyone's help, I'm a good wrestler," Daffney answered him, the part about being a good wrestler said more to convince herself than anyone else.  
  
"I'm sure you are," was his response, "but now everyone's going to see you and immediately associate you with that idiot, Richards. He's not someone you really want to hang around you, Miss Unger, I can assure you of that from personal experience. Nothing good will come of a partnership between the two of you."  
  
"He's not THAT bad, Raven," Ivory interjected, despite the fact that she thought Raven would ignore her. He didn't, however, and turned his attention towards the older female wrestler.  
  
"I wouldn't think you would be defending him, Ivory, especially considering your history together," Raven replied. "I mean, wasn't he the one who suddenly became 'immoral' and wanted to do things that you didn't believe were right for someone in the Right To Censor to do? Why don't you inform us of just what those things were?"  
  
The brunette looked more than a little annoyed at those statements, and although she wanted to reply, she couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't make her seem just as much at fault as any of the other members of the now defunct RTC. When the group had crashed and burned not too long ago, Ivory had walked out of the wreckage still holding herself in a high regard as far as whether or not the destruction of the group had anything to do with her. To this day, no one had stepped forward to refute her claim of purity while in the stable. She knew she wouldn't be able to get a lie past Raven, though, no matter how perfectly constructed she thought it was.  
  
"No reply? That's a pity... I'm sure it would have been a very... interesting story," Raven chuckled. The hardcore wrestler then returned his attention to Daffney, who had been silently praying that he would leave after he had finished with Ivory. "I'll be watching you... and I still suggest you stay away from Richards... you might not like what happens if you don't."  
  
With those words, Raven walked right past the two ladies, still laughing to himself. Daffney, however, was not amused at all about this conversation. She didn't need Stevie Richards's help, no matter what he or anybody else thought. Daffney couldn't believe that the nice guy who had merely suggested a partnership earlier in the night would have gone out of his way to interfere in a match that had nothing to do with him.  
  
"Hey, hun, don't worry about that... Stevie was just trying to help you out," Ivory tried to convince her friend, who, at the moment, couldn't see past the fact that she hadn't won the match on her own. "It's not that big of a deal... people help each other out all of the time, it doesn't mean you're a bad person or anything."  
  
"Hey guys!" Stevie Richards's voice called from down the hall. He jogged a bit down the hallway in an attempt to get to them a little bit quicker. "Daff, did ya-...?"  
  
The male wrestler didn't get any words out after that as he was met with a sharp slap to the face from the woman he had helped out earlier that night. With a loud scream, Daffney ran in the other direction, not wanting to deal with her frustrations openly at this moment. Behind her, she left a very confused Steven Richards, who was nursing the cheek he had been slapped on, and Ivory, who was giving Steven a disappointed look.  
  
"What'd I do?" Stevie asked. 


End file.
